Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm John And this is cut
Speaker 1: to it. Good do it, Good do it. That's getting
Speaker 1: down to do it, Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. You ain't heard about it, then
Speaker 1: we're about to let you know. It's all Did you
Speaker 1: just open a drink? What's going on? I'm excited for this.
Speaker 1: One's gonna be a good one. So Dan Campbell, recently
Speaker 1: hired as the Detroit Lions head coach. I want to
Speaker 1: play the audio of his press conference as he got
Speaker 1: introduced as a new head coach, And I want to
Speaker 1: get your reactions to this, all right, And when you
Speaker 1: punch us back, we're gonna smile at you. And when
Speaker 1: you knock us down, we're gonna get up. And on
Speaker 1: the way up, we're gonna buy the knee cap off,
Speaker 1: all right, and we're gonna stand up. And then it's
Speaker 1: gonna take two more shots to knock us down, all right,
Speaker 1: And on the way up, we're gonna take your other
Speaker 1: knee cap and we're gonna get up and then it's
Speaker 1: gonna take three shots to get us down. And when
Speaker 1: we do, we're gonna take another hunk out of you
Speaker 1: before before long, we're there going to be the last
Speaker 1: one standing. All right, that's gonna be the mentality. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: what's your reaction to that? Man, Let's break it down.
Speaker 1: Let's show, shall we? Yeah, let's go ahead. You start,
Speaker 1: you go with, you go the line and then I
Speaker 1: I mean, for me number one, I think, what do
Speaker 1: you think he's trying to do? You hear so many
Speaker 1: of these coaches, man, so many people are so quick
Speaker 1: to do all the raw roster right, like we want
Speaker 1: to get people, we want to get people fired up.
Speaker 1: And and as someone who's participating in sports, I get that. However, However,
Speaker 1: someone who's participated this the way you said, however, um,
Speaker 1: this is comical. It's funny, right, Like you're talking, You're
Speaker 1: talking about getting punched in the face and biting knee
Speaker 1: caps off. Like for me, this this isn't something where
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh man, I can't wait to go and
Speaker 1: play for this guy. Like this is not getting me
Speaker 1: going or making me want to say, oh man, I'm
Speaker 1: going to run through a wall for for this guy, personally,
Speaker 1: I'm not getting that well, he stated. The first time
Speaker 1: we get knocked out, we get knocked down, we're gonna
Speaker 1: know the this team is going to be built on.
Speaker 1: We're gonna kick you in the teeth. You'll punch us back.
Speaker 1: We're gonna smile at you. Okay, so berbatim. We get
Speaker 1: hit in the face, we're gonna smile. That was line
Speaker 1: number one, you know. So so you didn't got you
Speaker 1: didn't got hit. We're gonna kick you in the teeth.
Speaker 1: Not that we're gonna hit around house. I didn't know
Speaker 1: we were playing him. I didn't know this was m
Speaker 1: M A. Connor McGregor. Just got knocked out. Anyone got
Speaker 1: that name Robinson. So now so we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: kick you in the teeth. You punch us back. So
Speaker 1: he's so, he's already telling you you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 1: take that ash up. So we're gonna kick, They're gonna punch,
Speaker 1: We're gonna smile the hell I just got hit, and
Speaker 1: I'm showing a mouthful of didn't push a lot of folks.
Speaker 1: I ain't never seen a smile come out of one
Speaker 1: of them. So let's let's continue. When you knock us down,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get up, and on the way up, we're
Speaker 1: gonna buy a knee cap off um street ball and
Speaker 1: the m m A, m m a. That's illegal marks
Speaker 1: and I I get it, and I gotta see your
Speaker 1: technis shot records, because first of all, you got rabies.
Speaker 1: First of all, if you bite me, that's a problem.
Speaker 1: But you also smile when you got hit. So that's it.
Speaker 1: I'm fresh off a smile. It ain't a lot of upstairs.
Speaker 1: Let's let's continue to decode after he so bang, I
Speaker 1: hit you in the mouth, I smile, you smile, Then
Speaker 1: you round and I'm knock down by the way you bang.
Speaker 1: Then you got hit. On my way up, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bite your knee cap off, all right. Then we're going
Speaker 1: to stand up and it's gonna take two more shots
Speaker 1: to knockers dance. So now you hit me twice, No,
Speaker 1: you got hit my full time this round hit yea
Speaker 1: in totality, I've been hit. So's he coach of the
Speaker 1: Detroit Lions. Okay, look is maybe he's trying to play
Speaker 1: into the narrative of Detroit's a tough town city. I
Speaker 1: don't think people that need go around. I don't think
Speaker 1: that getting punched in their face, and they definitely ain't
Speaker 1: I know in Detroit they put you back, they'll rob
Speaker 1: you too. You ain't gonna smile getting wrong. Let me
Speaker 1: get your wallet and then to finish up. And then
Speaker 1: the finish up he said, And on the way up,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take your other kneecap and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: get up. And it's gonna take three shots to get
Speaker 1: his down. So now it's got punched in my face
Speaker 1: three times on top of the previous Can I can
Speaker 1: I can I jump in? Can I be honest and
Speaker 1: explain and maybe say why he's trying to emphasize a
Speaker 1: mentality that they have not been for a long time,
Speaker 1: Detroit tough. But coach Campbell, h if you are trying
Speaker 1: to tell men, you're recruiting them to become to come
Speaker 1: to the Detroit lines, and you are advertising that we're
Speaker 1: gonna get our ass kicked, but we're not gonna we're
Speaker 1: to go down fight. It's gonna be the last one standing.
Speaker 1: You know what I think of that that kind of coaching,
Speaker 1: that that that type of rob Rock speech you big dummy?
Speaker 1: Yes coming that? Sorry, Yes, team with that? Come on man,
Speaker 1: coach Dan cam Where you are a recipient of the
Speaker 1: cut to It podcast Big Dummy Awards? Oh yes, you
Speaker 1: know why because he is trying to use words and
Speaker 1: he is everybody knows Detroit of his notorious for not
Speaker 1: really doing what they're supposed to do. That city is
Speaker 1: a that city is a great city. They rally around
Speaker 1: their sports, blue collar city, bue collar. But to come
Speaker 1: in and your you know, fresh off Yo Joseph a
Speaker 1: bank suit. Oh yeah, my chill factors real load to day,
Speaker 1: I'm coming in hot. There's a fastball right down to centence. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And they go and they got a COVID nineteen sale too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He bought all of them, all six of them, fresh
Speaker 1: off the rack, fresh Taylor just yep. Yeah, his uncle
Speaker 1: head to the time and then right he had some
Speaker 1: busted browns. But then you do that and then he's
Speaker 1: like you could tell he's just gass grasp. I think
Speaker 1: he got in that deep end and he didn't know
Speaker 1: how to swim back. After He's like, all right, I
Speaker 1: gotta we're gonna get punched in the mouth. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get knocked down, I'm a I'm anna bite. I gotta
Speaker 1: show my tough and so we're gonna bite them back
Speaker 1: to nobody. I'm gonna get back up. So your point,
Speaker 1: you know what's gonna happen. You want to talk about
Speaker 1: resiliency like I get it. So after that, though, after that,
Speaker 1: what's the next storyline. We're gonna let Matthew Stafford m
Speaker 1: hmm go to a new team. Right, What kind of
Speaker 1: coach was coach Daniel Um? What kind of coach was he?
Speaker 1: What was he coaching prior to looking up? Let's looking up? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll let you know here's I hate to say it
Speaker 1: this way. I'll probably be at a training camp or
Speaker 1: during a game. Don't set your team up for failure
Speaker 1: before you on your first day at the job. We've
Speaker 1: seen that before, uh four years ago, when somebody got
Speaker 1: a job and they started making outlanded statements on the
Speaker 1: first day of the job. Get your feet wet, coach,
Speaker 1: understand the landscape of the I understand he knows the
Speaker 1: landscape of the city, but understand the landscape of your team.
Speaker 1: You make all those statements, and then your quarterback, who's
Speaker 1: the future, who can drop a dime pretty much anywhere
Speaker 1: on the field with a broken hand to school leading
Speaker 1: in passing any and you come out there. You could
Speaker 1: be tough all you want, but if you don't win,
Speaker 1: the speeches fall on deaf ears. Yep, because Cam, I
Speaker 1: think it's I think it's remarkable what you're attempting to do.
Speaker 1: But you're coaching better. Be better than your weak ass
Speaker 1: speeches because you're gonna catch mold in them. A coke
Speaker 1: and a smile, you're gonna catch. You're gonna be the
Speaker 1: next guy in Detroit and out of Detroit. So coach
Speaker 1: the next press conference you have. I'm not can you
Speaker 1: You're a big dumb just smiling wave, smiling wave. Who
Speaker 1: we got? We got c J Sapong. It's a special
Speaker 1: two part episode. I like c J. I learned, I
Speaker 1: learned a lot. It was a great opportunity to talk
Speaker 1: to him because, um, you know, I love to travel.
Speaker 1: But he he, he gave us a part of his life.
Speaker 1: He gave us some things that are not national geographics.
Speaker 1: They aren't on the Discovery Channel, to Travel channel down
Speaker 1: and books there are. It's about the real life history
Speaker 1: of c J's history. And you may not like what
Speaker 1: you hear. You may not agree with it, but one
Speaker 1: thing you have you can't this credit is that's his
Speaker 1: story and that's his and that's what he experienced that
Speaker 1: his family has experience. And I and I love the
Speaker 1: We had the opportunity to go down c J's story,
Speaker 1: and I hope you enjoy it's too part um. We
Speaker 1: talked about a lot of different things, but one thing
Speaker 1: you can't overlook is what c J and who says
Speaker 1: c J is and how his family got here. So
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy it. Let's go to it. The
Speaker 1: first thing we're gonna get into is our get iced
Speaker 1: up segments. All right, you ready, let's go. Okay, what
Speaker 1: childish things do you still do as adult? I've continue
Speaker 1: to record myself dancing like TikTok. Will you just do it?
Speaker 1: Just to be just doing it for myself, just random? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well interesting, Yeah, I know I've seen a picture of
Speaker 1: you. You You gotta make sure that flash on me. And huh,
Speaker 1: that's why I do it in the morning when the
Speaker 1: sun's coming up, just because hey, hey, we got filters
Speaker 1: for that now. I mean, we don't know that we're
Speaker 1: light skins. I mean, we're all right, y'all. Y'all be
Speaker 1: squitting like the flashes on the now you trying to
Speaker 1: go there. Everybody ain't gotta make the drake pace, you know,
Speaker 1: here we go. Uh do you survive the apocalypse? Uh? Huh?
Speaker 1: What would your job be? I would be, uh a
Speaker 1: boxanists because I'm into the agriculture and all that, so
Speaker 1: you know, I would make sure I know what that
Speaker 1: is to me. So what you said, that's what we'll
Speaker 1: just say. We'll just call it plants science. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there we go, come up us with the school to
Speaker 1: play sports the school, and then happened to learn and
Speaker 1: happen to play sports school. Yeah yeah, I feel that.
Speaker 1: I feel that plants science. Man, that's my ship and
Speaker 1: it's a it's a skill that I think, you know,
Speaker 1: even in this time, our community, if we if we
Speaker 1: are able to stay you know, true to that, we
Speaker 1: won't be as a lying on you know, all these
Speaker 1: other establishments, if you will. Yeah, I like that. I
Speaker 1: don't like that. All right, this is the last one.
Speaker 1: What set of items could you buy that would make
Speaker 1: the cashier the most uncomfortable? You know, I got I
Speaker 1: don't know, Steve, this is in your wheelhouse, but mostly
Speaker 1: for me. It's so it's some type of foot care products.
Speaker 1: You know, playing soccer, my feet get kind of beat up,
Speaker 1: so you know I'll be having the heel bomb and
Speaker 1: anti fungals. You know, they kind of look at me
Speaker 1: a little little sideways. But you know is what it is,
Speaker 1: always great until when I used to play, until you
Speaker 1: start back playing and then that, yeah, well come back
Speaker 1: in and take your socks off and everybody's looking around.
Speaker 1: Can't wear sandals nowhere? You look like you got ugly.
Speaker 1: Told well, I'm not gonna lie. That's the genetics. Yeah
Speaker 1: I got. I'm glad of it. My family's on here.
Speaker 1: So you know, we our feet are just built for terrain,
Speaker 1: you know, we we feilt. We built a traverse lands
Speaker 1: and that's not a bad thing. You know, I've embraced it.
Speaker 1: It's time in my life first land feet. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: so there's so many places I can go right there
Speaker 1: culturally relevant. Give me a trouble, So tell me what's
Speaker 1: your full name and what does it mean? Okay, my
Speaker 1: full name Charles, Nana na Palm and yeah, yeah, so Charles,
Speaker 1: that one Charles, Charles, we wrote down. I got Charles.
Speaker 1: What was after that I got too, because Nana is
Speaker 1: a nickname. Yeah yeah, yeah Nana, Yeah nah, I get
Speaker 1: that one. That ship. But now here's where I get tricked.
Speaker 1: Quab Na quab Now that's k w A b e
Speaker 1: n A and that's um well I have not yet
Speaker 1: and uh and then obviously so Pong at the end,
Speaker 1: um the non clap Na. Those those are my middle
Speaker 1: names um in my culture, my Ghanaian culture, the tribe
Speaker 1: that my family is a part of. You you put
Speaker 1: Nana in front of a name when it's the first born,
Speaker 1: and then quab Na again with my tribe, we have
Speaker 1: a specific set of names dedicated to each day that
Speaker 1: has its own element of the earth that it signifies
Speaker 1: as well. And that's where quap n comes in. Born
Speaker 1: on a Tuesday, child of the earth. Um. And then
Speaker 1: Spong is my my father's last name. So you think
Speaker 1: out of the earth. Yes, you're talking about you a
Speaker 1: study of plants? Is that intertwined with with your tribe
Speaker 1: and what your what your heritage? You know? I would say,
Speaker 1: I would say it's it's more of a you know,
Speaker 1: a genetic DNA thing that kind of just manifested itself
Speaker 1: throughout my life because I never was into plants when
Speaker 1: I was younger, I hated vegetables. You know. Um, but yes,
Speaker 1: our culture really believes that the name that you're given
Speaker 1: has an effect on who you who you become. So
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty interesting. I think, well, since you you
Speaker 1: went there in softball, pitch that for a minute, we
Speaker 1: go ahead and hit that thing out of the park.
Speaker 1: Where are you from in the place you call home?
Speaker 1: That's Ghana in West Africa. I know you guys are familiar,
Speaker 1: might not be, but Africa. I am familiar with Ghana.
Speaker 1: One of my best friends is a guy man and
Speaker 1: he is always bothering something. See that. Yeah, you learned that.
Speaker 1: You learned that early, especially if you about that. I
Speaker 1: grew up. So I took a missions trip, my first
Speaker 1: time ever going out of country UM two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight and I went. I went with a group of
Speaker 1: guys and we went to uh Togo Lo May and
Speaker 1: then we went to um Nigeria. And you know where
Speaker 1: I'm going here? Because Togo is a French colony, there
Speaker 1: is an English colony. Where do we have to stop
Speaker 1: to go? Two? Because we're on the budget obviously a
Speaker 1: mission trip, so we had to stop in Ghana. Oh
Speaker 1: and we spent a few hours in Ghana and it
Speaker 1: was really cool, um to see that because I saw
Speaker 1: one you know, I got to see the homeland and
Speaker 1: one of my best friends who we met ninth grade.
Speaker 1: We're still friends to this day, right to this day.
Speaker 1: But one but he also got me a Beckham jersey.
Speaker 1: But it cost me about five of my own jersey
Speaker 1: just for that one Beckham jersey. Because I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: he bawled. He bartered one jersey for me and several
Speaker 1: jerseys for himself and other guys. That's how it works, bro. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I even got messages from cousins left it right to
Speaker 1: this day. Man. You know, it is what it is.
Speaker 1: My my family, I guess kind of going back to
Speaker 1: um you know the origin story. I have a large,
Speaker 1: large Arte family. My grandfather was the chief of his
Speaker 1: tribe UM and you know, if you go back hundreds
Speaker 1: of years Africa rather you know, it wasn't countries, right,
Speaker 1: it was ribes and as the Europeans came into Africa infiltrated,
Speaker 1: a lot of the tribes dispersed. But my my lineage
Speaker 1: is has ties to be a con tribe, right, and
Speaker 1: they believe in you know, expanding or spreading the scenes
Speaker 1: far and wide. Um yeah, exactly exactly. So I have
Speaker 1: what I had thirty three uncles and aunts. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: got many, many, many a cousin's man. I went wild. Story. Actually,
Speaker 1: I when I went to Ghana when I was twenty one.
Speaker 1: You know, I went out there. I'm out out in
Speaker 1: the club with about five of my cousins. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm dancing, feeling good out there. You can just carry
Speaker 1: the bottles all around the club. And I see a chick,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm like, oh, talking to my cousin, Like, Yo,
Speaker 1: who is that? Like, I'm trying to see what's up? Man?
Speaker 1: It's just like, yo, chill, that's your cousin. Damn all right.
Speaker 1: It's like that. They got cousins South Carolinas. And we
Speaker 1: have to take a break and morning anything. We gotta
Speaker 1: pay some bills. You got checks. I love cut to It,
Speaker 1: and I love it even more when you download us
Speaker 1: and subscribe, and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie,
Speaker 1: where where at that's at? Cut to It? On Instagram?
Speaker 1: What about twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to
Speaker 1: It featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you
Speaker 1: can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my
Speaker 1: answers questions, Um yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for, a brother cut to a
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. I remember that was one of the
Speaker 1: startling things is getting off the airport. Um, back, this
Speaker 1: is this is back. Then you get off the airport
Speaker 1: and they tell you like sex trafficking, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: They do not play its signs up there. And then
Speaker 1: that was the first time I really realized how dangerous
Speaker 1: it was. Dud's had a K forty seven's And then
Speaker 1: you get off the airport and and this is a
Speaker 1: small airport, so you get off like literally the trmac
Speaker 1: right there. You get off and you walk in and
Speaker 1: they and they also tried to get me to flying out.
Speaker 1: All they tried to get me. They had me go
Speaker 1: through a metal detector, but the metal detector was unplugged,
Speaker 1: and he was like, where's the American money. He was
Speaker 1: olden my passport and he said he wasn't giving me
Speaker 1: my passport. Man. I snatched my passport because I was
Speaker 1: on my way out right, and I was on the
Speaker 1: I was on the road for like almost two weeks.
Speaker 1: I was ready to get home. Right. You had we
Speaker 1: had to. This is two thousand seven or eight, so
Speaker 1: you had the constant rolling blackouts at that time. I
Speaker 1: had to. I had a satellite phone because international m
Speaker 1: plans weren't there, and I just was done. I was
Speaker 1: done taking a shower with a bucket. Right. I stayed
Speaker 1: because we was on the mission Star accommodations. I wasn't
Speaker 1: have no Star accommodations. Right. We had one time, what
Speaker 1: we had for breakfast one egg baguettes. This was in Togo,
Speaker 1: and t I had. I didn't even eat my toes.
Speaker 1: I didn't even eat my egg. I gave you somebody else.
Speaker 1: And I just hate a backget and I had unlimited team.
Speaker 1: It was tough. And that's what I really noticed, and
Speaker 1: really realized how big the world is and how small
Speaker 1: we are. But I also noticed that if America didn't
Speaker 1: have as much financial influence, bro, we wouldn't be here
Speaker 1: because there's so many there's so many more established, not
Speaker 1: even well off, but grimeer countries that are just trying
Speaker 1: to stay afloat, and we don't even realize how lucky
Speaker 1: we have it here and we got it. We get
Speaker 1: a twisted We complained about being in line at a
Speaker 1: drive through, right, I mean, there's that's a hot button
Speaker 1: take right now. It is privileged on either side. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we we we do our own privileges that that we
Speaker 1: live in right now. So that's that's part of it.
Speaker 1: So you talked about your try, what is it? What
Speaker 1: take us through? What a trial? My mentality is for
Speaker 1: family because I hate the stereotype. But watching television, right,
Speaker 1: and I had to see it for myself, watching television,
Speaker 1: hearing about Africa, hearing about stuff. If you're only understanding
Speaker 1: is when they play Shakazoolu every year in the States.
Speaker 1: Is your perspective of of Africa? Sure? Sure, your dumbass
Speaker 1: meter is up there. It's it's it's about on the
Speaker 1: scale of one through five. Yeah, that's not really what
Speaker 1: Africa is about or what stands for. How it even
Speaker 1: stands on his own two ft um with each country. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: And I'm glad that you said that because it's a
Speaker 1: that is a offshoot of the serious programming that we
Speaker 1: as black people have gone through growing up in this country.
Speaker 1: But I'll save that for maybe later in this podcast.
Speaker 1: But when I talk about a tribe, right, it's better
Speaker 1: to envision, uh, your envisioned your neighborhood growing up, right.
Speaker 1: You had you know, old Uncle Timmy down the street.
Speaker 1: Maybe he was drinking a lot, but you know he
Speaker 1: always gave you a nice little bit of insight. You
Speaker 1: had your little homies that you know, you knew where
Speaker 1: they live. You rode your bikes there. You know, you
Speaker 1: ain't calling nobody, you ain't texting nobody. It's a tribe.
Speaker 1: A tribe is a communal group that had it dictates
Speaker 1: its own I won't say laws, but they each have
Speaker 1: their roles within that tribe and it's and it's set
Speaker 1: up so that that tribe, that tribe's capacity grows with
Speaker 1: every individual. Okay, this person does the sewing, this person
Speaker 1: grows the food, this person does the exports with other tribes,
Speaker 1: and you know, dealing with treaties to ensure again that
Speaker 1: the capath city of their community continues to expand with
Speaker 1: every individual. Now that the issue with that had happened
Speaker 1: in Africa is that when the white man came in,
Speaker 1: the white man came in, and you know, at first
Speaker 1: obviously it's a land that they didn't know, so they
Speaker 1: kind of you know, assimilated into the culture. They acted
Speaker 1: like they wanted to learn. They brought, you know, the
Speaker 1: different things from Europe that Africans didn't have, and slowly
Speaker 1: but surely we got away from our own self sufficiency.
Speaker 1: So an interesting story with my particular tribe, with my grandfather,
Speaker 1: he had a situation where the industrial Revolution was taken
Speaker 1: over Europe and he essentially got exposed to the white man,
Speaker 1: you know, with industrial parts, and he moved from agriculture
Speaker 1: base with you know, with rice grains and self sufficiency
Speaker 1: to straight car parts, jet engines, like big factory type items.
Speaker 1: And while that actually helped us um as a tribe,
Speaker 1: as a family, uh, grow in our financial potential, like
Speaker 1: I said, it ripped us away from the things that
Speaker 1: we had known for generations and down the road, it
Speaker 1: actually ended up causing a lot of risks because you know,
Speaker 1: as that British pounds started going in circulation as opposed
Speaker 1: to which you said, the old barter system, now degree
Speaker 1: takes over, you know, and it's it's a it's a
Speaker 1: really crazy story. How um you know, again, the programming
Speaker 1: of the white man kind of infiltrated my family's tribe
Speaker 1: and to this day we still have to deal with,
Speaker 1: you know, people going on land that we own and
Speaker 1: just European companies just building like premium homes. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's not like out here where you can you know,
Speaker 1: go to court or you know sense order like out there,
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, if you want this, you better come
Speaker 1: and take it. And you know that leads to a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of stuff. So do you go back?
Speaker 1: Um any um, Yeah, I was just back in January.
Speaker 1: How is your family's tribe and laying and all that
Speaker 1: stuff right now? Yeah, so based off of and this
Speaker 1: is interesting how it turned out. So because my grandfather
Speaker 1: made that move to industrialize, he actually ensured longevity within
Speaker 1: certain aspects of our family. Right, Like I said, he
Speaker 1: had thirty three kids, he had five wives. So the order,
Speaker 1: the hierarchical order, yeah right, um. The first you know,
Speaker 1: my my mother's family was lower on the uh in
Speaker 1: terms of the chain of hierarchical order. Especially what happened
Speaker 1: was the first borns, the second borns from the other
Speaker 1: mothers ended up just through green need losing everything. Whereas
Speaker 1: our family, because it was little by little by, little
Speaker 1: by little was very frugal, kind of kept, you know,
Speaker 1: the little bit of land here, the little lot there,
Speaker 1: the little house there. And we're able to slowly but
Speaker 1: surely build up to the point where now, man, when
Speaker 1: I go back, like we were living good. We're in
Speaker 1: the parts of Africa that you're not going to see
Speaker 1: on TV. You know, we we still have family that
Speaker 1: chooses to live you know, more simple life, that's you know,
Speaker 1: more in the village. And you know, it was cool
Speaker 1: for me to be able to just go back and
Speaker 1: forth from like literally living better than I live here
Speaker 1: in America to having to drive two hours up the mountain.
Speaker 1: And you know, uh hear the story is about walking
Speaker 1: three miles just to get water for the day. You know. So,
Speaker 1: oh it's real, bro, you know walk in three hours too,
Speaker 1: It's real. You know, it is so real. And yeah, man,
Speaker 1: and it's kids too. You know, it's five six year
Speaker 1: olds that are that are doing this, and but you
Speaker 1: know it's wild to me. It brings perspective because they're
Speaker 1: doing it with a smile on their face. Man. You know,
Speaker 1: you spend the first five hours of your day just
Speaker 1: to uh go to and from water and then just
Speaker 1: to get water, bros. And I mean that's for that's
Speaker 1: water for bathing, that's water for cooking, that's water to
Speaker 1: drink it. And I mean these kids still do it
Speaker 1: with a smile on their face. And you know, there,
Speaker 1: I would argue that there's still happier than people that
Speaker 1: I know. I mean, I play soccer with dudes. I
Speaker 1: got money for days. But you know they walk in
Speaker 1: in the morning and you sense from their energy like
Speaker 1: damn dog, you're not happy like it. It's it's wild
Speaker 1: really growing up and being exposed to your trying. How
Speaker 1: does that How has that impacted you? Package you in shape?
Speaker 1: How you see the world today? That's a great question, bro,
Speaker 1: That's literally the reason I am am. But you just
Speaker 1: got us a real rating. But here's what I love.
Speaker 1: Like the fact that you are talking about tribal We
Speaker 1: do a segment called DP three. I've changed my three
Speaker 1: questions now what you said, because I'm eating up everything
Speaker 1: that you're talking about culture, You're talking about the stuff
Speaker 1: just real talking in when I when I'm I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna tell you, I love to travel and I love
Speaker 1: the world. Right, And this is a story that nobody
Speaker 1: really is her. I remember, I grew up in l A. Um,
Speaker 1: I grew up poor, and my grandma and grandpa built
Speaker 1: into me, and growing up in in l A, they
Speaker 1: always you know, we grew up. I grew up in
Speaker 1: l A where a time where black and brown people
Speaker 1: were very dominant and living in in poverty. Black or
Speaker 1: brown people are neck to next, shoulder to shoulder right
Speaker 1: in the in l A. And my grandpa used to
Speaker 1: always say, if you will come to this country, you
Speaker 1: needed to speak our language. That was his stance on
Speaker 1: having some of the bilingual literature on buses on billboards
Speaker 1: in our community. And I never really understood that. And
Speaker 1: then on the way back to the States, we stopped
Speaker 1: in Paris because we went through Togo, and so we
Speaker 1: stopped in Paris, and at that time I didn't really
Speaker 1: know travel. I went through like a month process again
Speaker 1: my passport, and I remember sitting there and so I
Speaker 1: stopped in Paris and I want to butt in and
Speaker 1: and um, no one speaking English, and bro, my Grandpa's
Speaker 1: words rang in my head. If you're gonna be in
Speaker 1: our country, you gotta speak our language. And I it
Speaker 1: reminded me how small my I was and how I
Speaker 1: didn't go anywhere, and so I was in and being
Speaker 1: a light skin dude, I had a lot of people
Speaker 1: talking to me because they thought I was mixed, and
Speaker 1: so they were talking French. Tell me brothers still figuring
Speaker 1: out English? Right, I was, and I started to and
Speaker 1: my wife took French, so she kind of was like, hey, baby,
Speaker 1: she recorded some words just the safe for me and
Speaker 1: I I as soon as they realized, just off the
Speaker 1: respect if you attempt to speak their language. Bro, this
Speaker 1: is a part of pissed me off anymore. They speak
Speaker 1: five languages and they busted the English, and I'm looking
Speaker 1: at them with them evil eyes like you right. But
Speaker 1: one of the cool things is I was hearing my
Speaker 1: grandpa talk about other folks, but he was talking about me. H.
Speaker 1: He gave me that at that time, and it was
Speaker 1: really cool. And that's when I really started to And
Speaker 1: I love traveling now and with this virus. But when
Speaker 1: we start back traveling, a buckle up, Buttercup, because I'm
Speaker 1: getting my mouths back. I want to see everything because
Speaker 1: I don't know when the next time we will not
Speaker 1: be able. And so what I'm trying to say is, bro,
Speaker 1: you're allowing me to travel right now into Africa and
Speaker 1: all these different parts. So for me, I'm about it.
Speaker 1: I want to know what the tribe like was? What
Speaker 1: is who is c J the soccer player that is
Speaker 1: now infiltrated to cut to a podcast? Give us, give
Speaker 1: us an opportunity, brother, take us on the Discovery Channel
Speaker 1: hood version of really what it's like to play soccer?
Speaker 1: But also what this man who's experience and from a
Speaker 1: tribe of thirty three plus? Now, what what what do
Speaker 1: you bring to the table other than a nice jersey
Speaker 1: and a soccer ball and some grass and the net
Speaker 1: right yellow and yellow and red cars. Man, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't care how many goals you make. I want
Speaker 1: to know about this man. I want to know about
Speaker 1: this tribe and what what being from having a parents
Speaker 1: that you had, having a name that you had, and
Speaker 1: coming from the tribe that you've come from. You're gonna
Speaker 1: give us today that can really speak to these young
Speaker 1: men and women that are sitting here going I'm not
Speaker 1: from Ghana, I'm not from Togo, but I'm from here
Speaker 1: and I need to know can I make it? That's
Speaker 1: an amazing question, and I'm very glad that you asked
Speaker 1: that because this is the ship that people need to
Speaker 1: hear these days. Man, you know going, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start backwards, right you buck? I put my seatbelt on.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah. So so you are just talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: the indoctrination if you will, that you went through with
Speaker 1: your grandfather, you know, saying hey, if you don't be here,
Speaker 1: you need to speak English. I actually hear that a
Speaker 1: lot from people you know from here. Uh, friends, you know, acquaintances,
Speaker 1: what have you. Um. But what I recognized through my
Speaker 1: African heritage one, I didn't get to visit Africa. I
Speaker 1: visited Africa when out six, but I didn't remember much.
Speaker 1: It felt like it was poor land, right. It just
Speaker 1: seemed it was so different than America, and I I
Speaker 1: was very resistant to it. Um. But definitely what I
Speaker 1: realized is here, the biggest thing that leads us to success,
Speaker 1: I believe is perspective. I got perspective through the tribal
Speaker 1: culture that, even though I didn't grow up in in Ghana,
Speaker 1: was in my household. Right. So out of those three
Speaker 1: kids my mother's mom had a leaven of them, eight
Speaker 1: of them ended up within a thirty mile radius in
Speaker 1: fucking Northern Virginia. So I mean whether when my mom
Speaker 1: was at work and you know, it's my aunt that's
Speaker 1: that's watching me, or then it's my cousin that's watching me.
Speaker 1: And you know an African culture, well Ghandian culture, it
Speaker 1: don't matter who that that ken is to you, they
Speaker 1: can beat you, right, So mentality, that's that's South Carolina too.
Speaker 1: You know you're missing a key part. How did y'all
Speaker 1: pick Ghana to Virginia like that? You? I mean, how
Speaker 1: do you pick that? Because I have a friend here
Speaker 1: who does some stuff and you might have heard on
Speaker 1: his name, manny a homemade. He does Samaritans uh, Samaritan's
Speaker 1: feet and a wash feet, washed children's feet. They serve God.
Speaker 1: And he got a scholarship two I believe South Dakota
Speaker 1: State or North Dakota and South Dakota. South Dakota. He
Speaker 1: got a basketball scholarship off a freaking brochure. He had
Speaker 1: never been to South Dakota. So when he that was
Speaker 1: the first time he saw snow. So he got off
Speaker 1: the plane and I'm trying to figure and now he
Speaker 1: lives in North Carolina, so I know his story, but
Speaker 1: how do you how are you guys picking Ghana to
Speaker 1: Virginia because that seems there's a there's a lot of
Speaker 1: land between Ghana and Virginia. Oh my my mother one,
Speaker 1: like I was saying, so one of eight, that's all
Speaker 1: sisters too. My mother actually came to Virginia because two
Speaker 1: of her sisters had come to Virginia simply because it
Speaker 1: was close to d C. They literally Ghana was looking
Speaker 1: at him, Matt and was like, oh, yeah, that's the capital.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we want to go close to there. So
Speaker 1: but my mom's two older sisters came came to northern
Speaker 1: Virginia about twenty minutes outside d C. Literally sent her
Speaker 1: their passport. Well, they each used one passport, Like my
Speaker 1: aunts looked ridiculously alike, Bro, it's kind of crazy. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's how I know, right, that's how. That's how
Speaker 1: different it was. Though. So my mom got to Virginia,
Speaker 1: she decided she wanted to be a nurse. She was
Speaker 1: stocking closed at Ross while she was in nursing school. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll leave that right there for a second. All the while,
Speaker 1: my father had gotten a scholarship from his college in
Speaker 1: Ghana to do a master's program in Texas at Baylor
Speaker 1: University computer Science. So my dad blessed heart man like
Speaker 1: old scholar. You know, I'm not quite a scholar, but
Speaker 1: there are a lot of you know, his qualities and
Speaker 1: characteristics that I've taken in my life that I think
Speaker 1: have really helped me to get where I am today.
Speaker 1: So he graduated, boom. First job he gets is at
Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve in Washington, d C. So he moves
Speaker 1: to d C. So my parents met each other here.
Speaker 1: They didn't even meet in God, yeah, because I was
Speaker 1: gonna I was going to I was trying to figure
Speaker 1: that out, you know, and and not step in the
Speaker 1: you know, step in the ignorant bucket, right and go,
Speaker 1: hey where your parents you know, arranged marriage. Right. So
Speaker 1: because like I said, man, this is discovery for me,
Speaker 1: this discovery channel. I want to be able to ask
Speaker 1: ask you the dumb question and it'd be okay, that's
Speaker 1: a dumb question. But there's there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: people I roll with or I know that's from a
Speaker 1: tribe that that tribe is in their DNA. That yes,
Speaker 1: because he's knowing that history. Even because I would say
Speaker 1: on the other end of this table, because his brother
Speaker 1: from Lexing to North Carolina. But it ain't nothing. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of kids and cousins, his cousin in the club.
Speaker 1: But but but alone, but alone that route. I can't
Speaker 1: say that we did the whole ancestry dot Com thing.
Speaker 1: Maybe in oh wait. And I didn't know my family's
Speaker 1: history at all. My mom did. And what we end
Speaker 1: up finding out is that my great great great grandmother,
Speaker 1: I believe, was a slave named Margaret that came from Africa.
Speaker 1: That's all I know. That's where my family stops. And
Speaker 1: so to hear this brother c J talked about the
Speaker 1: tribes Ghana, what's it like there? Like all this I
Speaker 1: mentioned it before, heritage that he has, I'm damn, they're jealous,
Speaker 1: spous because he knows, he knows his identity, and you
Speaker 1: picked Virginia to come from Ghana. Margaret was brought here
Speaker 1: through the slave trade, pulled it through Charleston, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: and we make land in Gaffne, South Carolina before coming
Speaker 1: election to North Carolina. But it's through the slave trade.
Speaker 1: So just being able to hear that type of history
Speaker 1: and that kind of heritage and that story for me,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm giddy because he knows the other side. Monster
Speaker 1: my family stump starts in Charleston, but he has this
Speaker 1: rich heritage, deeply routed, deeply routed. So man, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm getting and you've been on our podcast. You're watering
Speaker 1: and making your roots even deeper because you know we
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't know exactly on both sides. My
Speaker 1: mom is one of third Day. Well, first, I'll say
Speaker 1: y'all are part of the tribe as well. You know
Speaker 1: this might be a little caused personal, but the tribal nature,
Speaker 1: the tribal culture is the reason why our people were
Speaker 1: pinpointed as you know, profit as profitable. The resilience, the strength,
Speaker 1: the courage, the connection that comes from a tribe is
Speaker 1: something that the white man saw and said, Okay, boom,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use this for my profit. That's why they
Speaker 1: brought him here. They brought us here. You know, agriculture,
Speaker 1: whether it's cotton, whether it's hemp, whether it's corn, We
Speaker 1: was the right, We was the ones growing it because
Speaker 1: they didn't know how to right. So they had us
Speaker 1: come here, set all the infrastructure up. They sat there,
Speaker 1: you know, yes, they threw the whip and they slowly
Speaker 1: but surely learn and learn and learn and just oppressed us.
Speaker 1: And and that's the reason why they went to such tactics,
Speaker 1: you know, and the slave slave times to really emasculate
Speaker 1: the men and desensus ties of families because they realized
Speaker 1: the strength of the tribe. They realized the strength of
Speaker 1: the family, you know. Um. And while it's sat in
Speaker 1: interesting enough, this allows me to kind of, uh put
Speaker 1: a little point of emphasis on when I first got
Speaker 1: on the call, because you know, I answered and I said, oh,
Speaker 1: living the dream. And Steve was like, man, this is
Speaker 1: a nightmare and it is. I ain't going in front
Speaker 1: it is. However, when I look at that, and yes
Speaker 1: it is. It does come from me having, you know,
Speaker 1: or being privy to the knowledge of my identity. When
Speaker 1: I hear all the atrocities that have happened to my people,
Speaker 1: When I go to Ghana and I see the castles
Speaker 1: that they set up along the coast and move my
Speaker 1: people across the water just so they could use them,
Speaker 1: you know, I realized why. It's because of the strength
Speaker 1: and the beauty within my dna. I think it's about
Speaker 1: that time. Just take a little breather. Good do it,
Speaker 1: good do it. Let's getting down to do it. Good,
Speaker 1: Hey Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: I got it from cut to a podcast dot com,
Speaker 1: where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys
Speaker 1: at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. When you talk about castles on the
Speaker 1: coast holding my people, dump it down and simplify it
Speaker 1: to two people who have you know, who've never been anywhere,
Speaker 1: who who don't know what you're referring to, who who
Speaker 1: who have been living under a rock? And I have
Speaker 1: no idea what you're talking about. Hell yeah, alright, So
Speaker 1: picture this. I'm I'm a twenty one year old African Americans,
Speaker 1: fairly successful in America. He's going to his native land
Speaker 1: to to learn and you know, quite frankly, did not
Speaker 1: know what he was getting himself into. So I spent
Speaker 1: the first couple of days with the family in the
Speaker 1: city downtown, goodbyes all that. So you've right now, you've
Speaker 1: traveled to Ghana. Traveled to Ghana. I'm in across across
Speaker 1: the capital, so you're living in the You're living the
Speaker 1: fake life of your family history right now on there
Speaker 1: on your home exactly. So not some homeland somebody told you.
Speaker 1: But you have many actual homeless and you're living in
Speaker 1: this life based on what you're about to go into. Yep, okay,
Speaker 1: didn't you. I just had to make sure you got it.
Speaker 1: You got it. So one of my cousins, um, while
Speaker 1: I had looked up the name of the cousin, Actually
Speaker 1: his name is un What's what's his American name? Cubby? Okay,
Speaker 1: blacks always got a nickname, O North Carolinian. You got
Speaker 1: a big name then, right, So I told him, you know,
Speaker 1: I heard of a spot called Cape Coast. I saw
Speaker 1: some stuff and on a it was Wikipedia at that time.
Speaker 1: I want to check it out. He said, alright, bet,
Speaker 1: well we'll go. I think two days later. We set
Speaker 1: up because it's a trip. It's like two hours from
Speaker 1: the capital, so we set up our supplies. You know.
Speaker 1: We started driving. Within thirty minutes, the asphalt changes to dirt,
Speaker 1: you know. You yeah, everything's getting dusty. There's certain areas
Speaker 1: of the road where you literally have you can't drive
Speaker 1: more than ten miles hour or you will get stuck,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, And I'm just on this like pilgrimage.
Speaker 1: If you will Man and uh, you know, two hours
Speaker 1: later you start to see the water, the air starts,
Speaker 1: you know, smelling nice, smelling salty. But then I also
Speaker 1: the first thing I noticed is down the Africans here
Speaker 1: is hell of light skinned. Didn't didn't think anything, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't think anything of it at the moment at
Speaker 1: the time, bro, Like I just remember, like, look and
Speaker 1: I said, wow, these this cast is light skin. Boy Like,
Speaker 1: all right, when would you see someone out there? You know?
Speaker 1: Not even not either? But I learned later, you know.
Speaker 1: So we get to the coast and I think we
Speaker 1: were at the Portuguese castle. Um. You get there and
Speaker 1: you're like damn, like, okay, what's going on here? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, I had known it was European castle, European castle,
Speaker 1: and it was there for the slave trade, but I
Speaker 1: had no idea what was in there. I had no
Speaker 1: idea like the history behind it, the ship that was
Speaker 1: going on in there. And so we get out. We
Speaker 1: literally crossed the drawbridge into this ship, and I mean
Speaker 1: I got hit, bro was I I believe it's a
Speaker 1: it's a d n A thing, right. I believe my
Speaker 1: people in my lineage because they had to experience such trauma,
Speaker 1: like in a way it has passed out to me
Speaker 1: because I walked in this spot and I feel weak
Speaker 1: in the knees, I feel anxious, you know, and and
Speaker 1: in every corner, you know, there's some bit of information,
Speaker 1: you know, letting you know. Okay, this is where, for instance,
Speaker 1: where they held the slaves, like there's a there was
Speaker 1: a dark line. Literally it was up to around my
Speaker 1: hip and I'm six for tall. That's where the p
Speaker 1: and the secs were stacked in the same room that
Speaker 1: they held the slaves. Mind you, this is their land,
Speaker 1: right they came Europeans, came on the boats. They didn't
Speaker 1: even go inland first. They started building right away, built
Speaker 1: the castle. Said oh hey guys, we're here. We just
Speaker 1: want to learn, like you guys seem so cool, like hey,
Speaker 1: look here's this, like it's from where we're from. What
Speaker 1: do you have? You know? And it and it talks
Speaker 1: about how slow and methodical they were in learning how
Speaker 1: to They didn't know how to make rice, you know,
Speaker 1: they didn't know how to fucking be uh uh covered
Speaker 1: from the sun, like yeah, they could, you know, be
Speaker 1: in their dwellings. But whenever they try to leave, like
Speaker 1: some burn out the ask. We're giving them different types
Speaker 1: of herbs to help with that. While all along they're
Speaker 1: setting up this castle they got and ends on there
Speaker 1: that are facing the land or facing the water and
Speaker 1: the land just in case, you know, the convoy comes
Speaker 1: for them or some ship. Um you know, I got
Speaker 1: to read the and this is where the light skin
Speaker 1: thing comes in. Uh. They said it was wild how
Speaker 1: the masters, the white men, which has rampidtly raped the women,
Speaker 1: and that they actually had a lot of um anecdotal
Speaker 1: evidence that showed that these white men were lusting so
Speaker 1: much over the African woman, like we're literally had an
Speaker 1: insatiable thirst for them. Where they would go there every
Speaker 1: single day. Yeah, every single day they would go into
Speaker 1: the the quarters that they were holding them and they
Speaker 1: would just pick out the litter, just pick each one
Speaker 1: every day, multiple times a day. Hence why all the
Speaker 1: people in this region are light skinned. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I get it, now, I get it. How are you
Speaker 1: feeling why you're experiencing all of this at the same
Speaker 1: time with that landscape of telling you that one of
Speaker 1: your thirty three was possibly captured and raped. One of
Speaker 1: the thirty three's friends were captured and possibly raped and
Speaker 1: and and held captive against their will on the land
Speaker 1: that's your family fought for, fought other drives for, died for. Hell,
Speaker 1: there are men and women died out in the heat
Speaker 1: on you know, serving and cultivating that land to be
Speaker 1: able to provide for their for their children for generations. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: that's the hardest part. It's like I said, it was
Speaker 1: super emotional from the chock Um, But I think the
Speaker 1: biggest one that got me was um, not just the
Speaker 1: way that they treated the women um, but also learning
Speaker 1: that the tactics right, like they would put tribes against
Speaker 1: each other, you know, tribes that were in prosperity for
Speaker 1: hundreds of years, and then you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you understand the term false flag, but like you know,
Speaker 1: they'll get four or five of you know, some some
Speaker 1: men from one tribe and give them women, give them alcohol,
Speaker 1: let them shoot a gun, and tell them, hey, now
Speaker 1: you're gonna go do that to that tribe that you've
Speaker 1: been chilling with for the last hundred years. And oh yeah,
Speaker 1: if you don't, we're gonna cut your nuts off, or
Speaker 1: we're gonna go get your wife where We're gonna go
Speaker 1: get your daughter you know, and like the way they
Speaker 1: because they were scared, like the white man white man
Speaker 1: was still so scared of us that they didn't they
Speaker 1: weren't the ones, uh, you know, pulling the trigger all
Speaker 1: the time. It was literally them brainwashing and and coercing
Speaker 1: our own people to fight against each other. That that one,
Speaker 1: for me, is the biggest one. And the anger and
Speaker 1: the the hatred and obviously the triggers from you know,
Speaker 1: the different type of racist moment I won't say racist,
Speaker 1: but like moments of systemic injustice that I had already
Speaker 1: transpired by the time I was twenty one. It's like
Speaker 1: it put me in a dark place for a while,
Speaker 1: for real, um. And I'm fortunate that I was able
Speaker 1: to use that as an opportunity to recognize while you know,
Speaker 1: as I did the deep dive into this history and
Speaker 1: this information, it gave me the opportunity to realize, well, hey,
Speaker 1: why else would they have done this? And it was
Speaker 1: for for them. It was such a fear that god damn,
Speaker 1: we're sitting over where we're at, thinking we're running things,
Speaker 1: and then you come here and these they don't have carriages,
Speaker 1: they don't have all the cool things we have, and
Speaker 1: yet they're prosperous. Yeah. If we don't get them right now,
Speaker 1: they're gonna get us. Talking about that dark place, how
Speaker 1: do you after experiencing everything you experienced twenty one years old?
Speaker 1: You know, we skipped a lot, we'll go back to it,
Speaker 1: but how do you not become racist based off that
Speaker 1: small information that and I say small because you just
Speaker 1: got a morsel of information, but it hits you like
Speaker 1: an earthquake because it was your it's your family, and
Speaker 1: you get to see your history. How do you not
Speaker 1: walk around that are resentful? Yeah, resentful and kind of
Speaker 1: it's like and the reason I say that is, uh,
Speaker 1: you you know I sometimes you go to movies when
Speaker 1: they were open, You see movies about history, and you
Speaker 1: walk out of there and sometimes in all ang yes
Speaker 1: to the point cert like you go man, and they're say,
Speaker 1: what based on based on true story, based on historical facts,
Speaker 1: And if you happen to be of that culture, you
Speaker 1: can't just walk out and go that was a great movie.
Speaker 1: You're gonna some bullcrap. So how could do How did
Speaker 1: it not sour your taste about people that were not
Speaker 1: of your descent, that were not that were a lighter
Speaker 1: color skin than you. Yeah, that's the short answer, is it.
Speaker 1: It didn't. It may be very bitter, it may be
Speaker 1: very racist for a little bit there, And I think
Speaker 1: it's a process. That's the thing that even in this
Speaker 1: time now, we got to allow ourselves to heal from
Speaker 1: past trava. Man, we can't be sitting here like, oh,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we're gonna be above and beyond
Speaker 1: you know the trauma that's been that are are people
Speaker 1: have transpired for. Yeah. So what Fortunately for me, I
Speaker 1: was able to find success through the sport I played,
Speaker 1: which allowed me to recognize that even in all the
Speaker 1: you know, systemic issues that are are out here, when
Speaker 1: I ball hard, y'all respect me. Now, that's not a good,
Speaker 1: that's not good by enemies. But through that, through that confidence,
Speaker 1: through that feeling of value, I was able to find Honestly, bro,
Speaker 1: it's swag, Like that's something that black people. We just
Speaker 1: got swag. We got energy, we got spice, we got sauce,
Speaker 1: and these are things that I think I used and
Speaker 1: I and I really engulfed myself and that energy because
Speaker 1: I saw how comfortable it made people that are not
Speaker 1: my race. And so that was my subtle f you
Speaker 1: to them, is I would walk down, you know, campus,
Speaker 1: a college with four percent black people. I walk down,
Speaker 1: my headphones is on loud. Yes I'm wrapping little way,
Speaker 1: and yes I'm saying the curse words, and yes my
Speaker 1: head is held high. Yes I'm stopping and dancing. And
Speaker 1: they'll look like, oh is that what is he doing?
Speaker 1: And like the fact that in a place where I'm
Speaker 1: four that y'all the eight to six seventy percent are
Speaker 1: getting uncomfortable or the you know, I'm the one or
Speaker 1: two black guys in the party and y'all uncomfortable that
Speaker 1: I'm here. Bet hell yeah, because I do have power
Speaker 1: over you. It's it's it's it's a mind thing at
Speaker 1: that point. And and obviously that was backed with the
Speaker 1: actual knowledge of my people and the identity that I
Speaker 1: had any time I went home, and understandings of self
Speaker 1: sufficiency and knowing that okay, now I can be I
Speaker 1: can't walk around my chest held high and not war
Speaker 1: so much about how I'm mused because I don't need
Speaker 1: that job that only the white man could give me, right,
Speaker 1: I don't need that. Uh. And this goes to if
Speaker 1: I was to have, you know, my own self sufficient
Speaker 1: type of agricultural setup. I don't need UH hit Walmart
Speaker 1: every week to continue to give the white man money.
Speaker 1: You know, I know my people have this in my DNA.
Speaker 1: I know that I can learn these skills, these reeks,
Speaker 1: get these resources, this knowledge that I can then pass
Speaker 1: on to my family for generations to come. We have
Speaker 1: to stop right there. C J story only gets more interesting.
Speaker 1: It's just so much in there. We had to break
Speaker 1: it up, trying to be respectful of your time. Hold on,
Speaker 1: hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, Steve, we
Speaker 1: heard about CJ's heritage, and what do you know about yourrs?
Speaker 1: I know a lot, not just quickly. My heritage is
Speaker 1: on my dad's side Smith. Um. We were a family
Speaker 1: born and raised in Louisiana. Uh. They were blacksmiths on
Speaker 1: a we're slaves and we're free, and UH went to
Speaker 1: Texas and UH two in Texas became was forced back
Speaker 1: into slay slavery, UM and had to fight, became a
Speaker 1: buffalo soldier, had to fight and UH in the war
Speaker 1: I believe in civil war, and in that civil war
Speaker 1: we fought became free. UM. And then my family moved
Speaker 1: to Monterey, California, where my UH great great great grandfather
Speaker 1: moved to Monterey, California, started several churches. UH started the
Speaker 1: in double a CP of Monterey UH plan of four
Speaker 1: or five churches. My great great great grandmother UM was
Speaker 1: considered the first lady in UM. And my grandfather great
Speaker 1: great grandfather, who was a Buffalo soldiers, actually in the
Speaker 1: uh Enshrine and the Smithsonian and UM. And so that's
Speaker 1: my history on my UH on my dad's side, my
Speaker 1: family at the time and my family some of my
Speaker 1: other family, they went actually to the to the property
Speaker 1: in Louisiana and and and tour the grounds and it
Speaker 1: was really cool UH to see and so we did
Speaker 1: a they got the experience to it. I was in
Speaker 1: trading camp, still playing at the time. But they went
Speaker 1: back and UM went and tour the grounds and and
Speaker 1: saw everything. UM. And we did it. They we did
Speaker 1: it as a UH family reunion. It was pretty cool. UM.
Speaker 1: I got pictures and all that stuff. So it was
Speaker 1: really cool to to get to experience. And I still
Speaker 1: have the pay work in my house and I looked
Speaker 1: back and so that history was pretty awesome. UM. And
Speaker 1: what's really cool about that is UM. Also in my
Speaker 1: family history is my boys my generation, my kids are
Speaker 1: all named after so. My oldest son, Peyton, my first
Speaker 1: name Steven is his one of his middle names, um Boston.
Speaker 1: His middle name is Gene, which is my wife's dad's
Speaker 1: middle name, which is Um, my father in law's dad's
Speaker 1: first name Um, and then obviously deuced his name after me. UM.
Speaker 1: So we have started that. UM every boy in our
Speaker 1: family with you know, my three boys will be named
Speaker 1: not after me, but named after another man in our
Speaker 1: family that holds significance. My wife's father us holding significance
Speaker 1: because he taught me how to tie a tie. He
Speaker 1: wasn't my father. UM my dad is in my life,
Speaker 1: but my dad UM taught me some things. UM. My
Speaker 1: dad name is Stephen and my name is Steven. Um.
Speaker 1: So just my boys know when they have boys that
Speaker 1: they are to name it after someone in our family
Speaker 1: or significance. Doesn't have to be me. It doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be my dad, but somebody else. So I think
Speaker 1: that's very unique and want to keep that tradition that
Speaker 1: I've started. Dope, it's dope wrought in your DNA A
Speaker 1: little bit, a little bit. You are a unique person.
Speaker 1: You are well worth it. You are competent and most
Speaker 1: of all your lovable I'm Steve Smith Singior, I'm Gerald
Speaker 1: Little John and this has cut to It. Cut to
Speaker 1: It with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a
Speaker 1: production of Cut to It LLC, Baltol Creative Media, The
Speaker 1: Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio, Apple Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith SINGR, co host Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media
Speaker 1: team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media.
Speaker 1: Cut to It is produced by Brian Balta Chevitch and
Speaker 1: Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production manager
Speaker 1: Sarah Pollock, Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals
Speaker 1: by Anthony Hamiltons. You heard about it, then we're about
Speaker 1: to let you know. It's all